


hands

by witchesdiner



Series: parts of me still there in it [1]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Live Action), Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-07
Updated: 2018-04-07
Packaged: 2019-04-19 17:26:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14242230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/witchesdiner/pseuds/witchesdiner
Summary: Alphonse escapes the Tucker house with Nina and Alexander, reflecting on the parallels in their situations. live action movieverse.





	hands

At this rate, Alphonse thought, Alexander would probably tear his arm off. The leash was tight around his left palm, wound three or four times because he needed something to do with his hands to stop the rattling.

“It’s okay, big brother,” Nina whispered, patting the inside of his chest plate over and over, “I’m sure Daddy can help you.”

Without a nose or vocal chords, it was easy for Alphonse to hold back the nasty snort Edward wouldn’t have been able to resist. It was a sign he was more grown up, he told himself. Not this body of his he hadn’t asked for.

“Mmmm,” he hummed, looking up and down the street. “Nothing is hurting, right, Nina? N-Nothing’s poking into you, I mean. It’s a bit… uncomfortable, I bet.”

“Is hide and seek over soon?” Her voice was clear in his chest. Naïve but laced with a worry he’d shared (or thought he’d shared) when he whispered questions to Edward on their mother’s bad days.

Alphonse wondered, for the millionth time, where he heard from. He wrapped the leash around his hand a fourth time as Alexander sniffed a miniature fruit tree just outside a busy cafe terrace.

A tiny palm tapped against the inside of his chest. It was steady and soothing. The noise in his joints subsided.

“Are you playing a song, Nina?” Alphonse asked very quietly.

“Yes!” She chirped, too loudly. The rhythm stopped and the rattling resumed.

“Alexander, no!” Alphonse chided, tugging the leash. The large dog reluctantly moved away from the little fruit tree and let Alphonse guide him towards a fire hydrant.

“I made it up myself,” Nina was whispering again. “The song. It’s about me and Daddy and Alexander and you guys too.”

“Oh, that’s amazing,” he praised, letting Alexander take the reins and lead him further down the street. “You’ll have to show it to Mr. Hughes when we get to his house.”

“He’s going to be a Daddy too. Soon, right?”

“Mmmm. And he can’t wait to meet you.”

“I’m gonna be friends with his daughter!” Nina announced, patting the inside of his chest again. It was a fast-paced rhythm, a few light taps followed by a pause and then a couple knocks. “This is about us being friends and playing together.”

“It’s a little early to know if Gracia’s having a girl or boy,” he replied, turning the corner into a row of fine houses. They were almost safe but he couldn't stop shaking.

“It’s gonna be a girl because I want a baby sister to play with!” Nina paused a moment, then continued, “I like having brothers and Alexander and Daddy, but I never see any girls.”

“You don’t play with girls on your street?” Alexander whined as the leash twined around leather fingers. “Sorry.”

“Daddy said there aren’t any.”

On an early morning hunt for Edward’s preferred brand of tea, Alphonse had spotted a Xingese woman scolding a sweet-faced little girl with braids around her head and a busted open box of biscuits in her hand at the corner store on the same street as the Tucker house. He imagined a better life for Nina, one where the two girls spun around in circles like he was sure he and Winry had. Where they braided each other’s hair every Saturday and went out to the cinema together. Where Shou Tucker smiled and slept properly and did not neatly draw the alchemical symbols for “girl” and “dog” on opposite sides of a circle on his floor in the basement. Alphonse’s unfeeling hands shook for him.

He envisioned Edward’s hands, warm and steady, but dampened with sweat and blood as he fabricated a soul and a story that would squeeze his hand and share his blood and give him an unceasing quest to stave the dead gleam that crept into his eyes at the end of the days that seemed to last forever.

Nina was homeschooled, hidden behind a high fence and a maze of cherrywood halls with geometric friezes she would never grow tall enough to discern. No one would have searched for her or even miss the sight of bright eyes and swinging braids. No one to miss her laughing and tapping but Alphonse and Edward and perhaps somewhere inside, Tucker himself.

Alphonse had grown up in the country, known by few.

Alphonse didn’t want to believe that Edward could be like Tucker. Lying down, like a doctor's patient, Alphonse had looked up at someone for the first time in years, trusting his shaded face and the hands that swept over his cold body.

“We’re here! Start counting, Nina.” Alphonse leaned over to pat Alexander on the head before tackling the stairs. The dog growled and nipped at his fingers. Too hard, then.

“I think you’re right, Nina,” Alphonse whispered as Nina counted heartbeats he didn’t have, perhaps had never had. She counted down from twenty, still tapping as he mounted the stairs and knocked on the door, “Mr. Hughes is going to have a little girl.”


End file.
